Just seven per cent of managers work part time in Australia, a staggering figure highlighting a clear barrier for women’s progression, given women are overwhelmingly more likely than men to work part time.
This single-digit management figure shows a “part time promotion cliff” continuing to limit career progression, and illustrates just how lacking promotion opportunities actually are for those who don’t meet the availability requirements of “full time worker”.
It’s a promotion gap that is preventing employers from accessing the best possible leadership talent, and one that may be preventing people from bringing the out-of-work experience and knowledge workers gain during their time outside of paid employment into leadership positions.
The figures comes from new analysis from the Workplace Gender Equality Agency released today, based on the almost five million employees covered in its Employer Census from the 2022-23 period, with employers with 100 or more employees required to report to the agency.
The data reveals that time has done little to shift perceptions that a management position is a full time position, with the number of managers working part time rising just one percentage point from the six per cent recorded in 2018-19.
The higher up the management and leadership chain you go, the less likely you are to find managers working part time. Just five per cent of Key Management Personnel work part time, and a tiny three per cent of CEOs worked part time during the period analysed, with men more likely to account for the 149 part time CEOs the dataset revealed (58 per cent of those CEOs).
WGEA CEO Mary Wooldridge described the findings as indicating a “promotion cliff” for part time workers in Australia, which makes closing leadership pay and gender gaps even more challenging given the high proportion of Australian women working part time (accounting for 30 per cent of women, compared to 11 per cent of men).
“This new analysis shows there are severe constraints on them doing so at senior levels and helps explain why we see much lower proportions of women in leadership roles,” Wooldridge said.
“This risks women’s skills and talents being underutilised and can leave them languishing in more junior roles than they are capable of.”
The “part time promotion cliff” is not only limiting career options for those working part time, it’s limiting organisations from accessing the best leadership talent and the opportunity for role models to demonstrate different modes of successfully pursuing a management career.
If employers truly want access the best managers and create the best experiences for those who are managed, they need to consider the impact of the part time management gap. That means moving away from the mindset that management can only be done on a full time basis. It means redesigning roles, considering job-sharing arrangements, and removing any bias from promotion opportunities that are limiting those working part time and flexibly.